Against a dominant ace like Arkansas left-hander Drew Smyly, the Florida baseball team didn’t have much room for error. When Smyly was as dialed in as he was Friday night at McKethan Stadium, there were a lot of frowns in the Florida dugout.
The redshirt sophomore went seven innings, allowing eight hits and three runs while tying his season high with 10 strikeouts as Arkansas beat Florida, 8-3.
Of the 130 pitches Smyly threw, 91 were for strikes.
“He threw some big pitches when he needed to,” Florida head coach Kevin O’Sullivan said. “We had some opportunities early but just couldn’t come up with the big hit. You’ve got to give him credit. He’s been doing that all year long.”
Coming off an 18-8 victory at South Florida Wednesday, the Florida bats were silenced. The Gators took an early 1-0 lead after the first inning, scoring a run after Nolan Fontana doubled, moved to third on a Jonathan Pigott bunt and scored on a grounder by Preston Tucker.
In five of the last eight innings, Smyly (6-0) and senior relief pitcher Mike Bolsinger combined to face the minimum batters an inning.
“I don’t think it’s so much our hitters as facing a guy on Friday night who has been really successful against a lot of teams,” O’Sullivan said.
Florida starting pitcher Alex Panteliodis cruised for the first five innings, allowing only one hit and striking out four in that time. The one hit he did allow was an opposite-field solo home run by Travis Sample.
After a bases-loaded balk by Smyly gave the Gators a 2-1 lead and all the momentum after the fifth inning, Panteliodis struggled when he came back out to pitch. He led off by walking Collin Kuhn and gave up a two-run home run to Bo Bigham, putting the Razorbacks ahead 3-2.
Florida catcher Mike Zunino thought it was the long bottom of the fifth inning that may have caused Panteliodis to tighten up before he came back out to pitch.
“We had an inning where it took us a little while and we got some base runners on,” Zunino said. “He had to sit down, and I think he just got cold. It’s tough to sit down like that. They were able to pop a few balls and one snuck out (of the park), and it escalated from there.”
The knockout blow came in the seventh inning. After Panteliodis gave up a leadoff double to Sample and a single to Tim Carver, Jeff Barfield came in to pitch. Barfield got a pop out to second base by James McCann, but Kuhn hit a towering blast into the left field bleachers off a hanging slider with two strikes to push the Arkansas lead to 6-2.
Panteliodis has allowed six home runs in his last two starts.
“They’re a good hitting team,” O’Sullivan said. “They’re an older team and a club that has been to Omaha. They’ve got some really good hitters, but we’ve got to make some better pitches. It’s as simple as that.”
The only run the Gators would score in the final four innings came on a home run by Zunino, his third in the past three days. He lined a two-strike pitch over the left-centerfield fence for his sixth home run on the year.
Bolsinger, who moved from Friday night pitcher to the bullpen a few weeks ago, closed the final two innings by striking out four batters. Arkansas head coach Dave Van Horn made the move to use the clutch senior out of the bullpen, while also trusting Smyly to move into the Friday night role with no dropoff.
The Gators will now try to regroup in game two of the series on Saturday at 1 p.m. Florida will send freshman right-hander Hudson Randall (3-3, 4.12 ERA) to the mound to ace Arkansas junior Brett Eibner (3-2, 3.38 ERA).
SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE
Eastern Division Conference Overall
(Rank) Team W-L Pct. W-L Pct.
(10) South Carolina 12-4 .750 30-8 .789
(11) Florida 10-6 .625 26-11 .702
(15) Vanderbilt 9-7 .563 32-9 .780
Kentucky 5-11 .313 22-16 .579
Tennessee 4-12 .250 19-20 .487
Georgia 3-13 .188 12-26 .316
Western Division Conference Overall
(Rank) Team W-L Pct. W-L Pct.
(7) Arkansas 13-3 .813 33-6 .846
(5) Louisiana State 11-4 .733 32-6 .842
Auburn 9-7 .563 26-13 .667
(19) Mississippi 8-7 .533 25-13 .658
Alabama 5-10 .333 22-15 .595
Mississippi State 5-10 .333 20-17 .541
(Rank) Ranking is the latest USA Today/ESPN Coaches poll 04/19/10
RESULTS
FRIDAY / April 23
Arkansas 8, Florida 3
South Carolina 11, Georgia 4
Vanderbilt 10, Tennessee 1
Auburn 13, Kentucky 6
Alabama 1, Mississippi State 0 (bottom 1, suspended)
Louisiana State at Mississippi, ppd., thunderstorm
SATURDAY / April 24
Arkansas (Jr. RHP Brett Eibner 3-2, 3.38 ERA) at Florida (Fr. RHP Hudson Randall 3-3, 4.12 ERA), 1 p.m. (SUN)
South Carolina (Jr. RHP Sam Dyson 3-2, 5.04 ERA) at Georgia (TBA), 1 p.m. (CSS)
Louisiana State (Jr. RHP Anthony Ranaudo 2-0, 3.00 ERA and So. RHP Joey Bourgeois 4-1, 6.23 ERA) at Mississippi (Jr. LHP Drew Pomeranz 6-0, 1.38 ERA and Sr. RHP Aaron Barrett 6-2, 3.07 ERA) (2), 4 p.m.
Kentucky (Fr. LHP Taylor Rogers 4-4, 4.92 ERA) at Auburn (TBA), 4 p.m.
Mississippi State at Alabama (continuation of Friday’s suspended game with Alabama leading 1-0 in the bottom of the first), TBA
Mississippi State (Fr. RHP Chris Stratton 4-3, 3.88 ERA) at Alabama (So. LHP Adam Morgan 4-2. 5.26 ERA), 5 p.m.
Vanderbilt (So. RHP Jack Armstrong 5-1, 4.21 ERA) at Tennessee (Sr. RHP Stephen McCray 4-3, 2.59 ERA), 7 p.m. (CSS)
SUNDAY / April 25
Arkansas (TBA) at Florida (TBA), 1 p.m.
Kentucky (TBA) at Auburn (Jr. LHP Grant Dayton 4-2, 4.89 ERA), 2 p.m.
Vanderbilt (Jr. RHP Taylor Hill 3-3, 3.30 ERA) at Tennessee (TBA), 2 p.m.
South Carolina (Sr. RHP Jay Brown 2-0, 3.60 ERA) at Georgia (TBA), 2 p.m.
Louisiana State (So. LHP Chris Matulis 5-1, 3.86 ERA) at Mississippi (TBA), 2:30 p.m. (CSS)
Mississippi State (Fr. LHP Luke Bole 2-0, 6.92 ERA) at Alabama (Fr. RHP Tucker Hawley 1-0, 4.58 ERA), 3 p.m.
RANKINGS
April 19, 2010
USA TODAY/ESPN COACHES
1. Arizona State (31-3); 2. Texas (30-7); 3. Georgia Tech (31-5); 4. Virginia (29-9); 5. Louisiana State (30-6); 6. UCLA (27-5); 7. Arkansas (31-6); 8. Coastal Carolina (32-5); 9. Florida State (28-9); 10. South Carolina (28-8); 11. Florida (25-10); 12. Texas Christian (27-7); 13. Louisville (29-6); 14. Miami, Fla. (27-9); 15. Vanderbilt (29-9); 16. Kansas State (26-8); 17. Arizona (26-9); 18. Oklahoma (26-10); 19. Mississippi (24-13); 20. Clemson (23-14); 21. Cal State Fullerton (20-13); 22. Oregon State (20-11); 23. California (22-11); 24. Southeastern Louisiana (29-9); 25. Oregon (23-12).
BASEBALL AMERICA
1. Arizona State (31-3); 2. Virginia (29-9); 3. Texas (30-7); 4. Georgia Tech (31-5); 5. UCLA (27-5); 6. Florida State (28-9); 7. Florida (25-10); 8. Louisiana State (30-6); 9. Arkansas (31-6); 10. South Carolina (28-8); 11. Texas Christian (27-7); 12. Coastal Carolina (32-5); 13. Louisville (29-6); 14. Miami, Fla. (27-9); 15. California (22-11); 16. Cal State Fullerton (20-13); 17. Arizona (26-9); 18. Oregon (23-12); 19. Mississippi (24-13); 20. Virginia Tech (25-13); 21. Connecticut (27-7); 22. Stanford (18-13); 23. Vanderbilt (29-9); 24. Oklahoma (26-10); 25. Southeastern Louisiana (29-9).
COLLEGIATE BASEBALL
1. Arizona State (31-3); 2. Texas (30-7); 3. Georgia Tech (31-5); 4. Arkansas (31-6); 5. South Carolina (28-8); 6. Louisiana State (30-6); 7. Coastal Carolina (32-5); 8. UCLA (27-5); 9. Miami, Fla. (27-9); 10. Virginia (29-9); 11. Florida State (28-9); 12. Florida (25-10); 13. Louisville (29-6); 14. Texas Christian (27-7); 15. California (22-11); 16. Cal State Fullerton (20-13); 17. Kansas State (26-8); 18. Arizona (26-9); 19. Connecticut (27-7); 20. Oklahoma (26-10); 21. Rutgers (21-13); 22. Stanford (18-13); 23. Oregon (23-12); 24. Pittsburgh (26-9); 25. Oregon State (20-11); 26. Clemson (23-14); 27. Mississippi (24-13); 28. Vanderbilt (29-9); 29. Auburn (24-13); 30. Northwestern State (24-10).
NATIONAL COLLEGE BASEBALL WRITERS ASSOCIATION
1. Arizona State (31-3); 2. Texas (30-7); 3. Georgia Tech (31-5); 4. Virginia (29-9); 5. Louisiana State (30-6); 6. Arkansas (31-6); 7. UCLA (27-5); 8. Texas Christian (27-7); 9. Coastal Carolina (32-5); 10. Florida State (28-9); 11. Louisville (29-6); 12. Florida (25-10); 13. Miami, Fla. (27-9); 14. South Carolina (28-8); 15. Vanderbilt (29-9); 16. Arizona (26-9); 17. Oklahoma (26-10); 18. Kansas State (26-8); 19. Cal State Fullerton (20-13); 20. Southeastern Louisiana (29-9); 21. East Carolina (24-12); 22. Oregon State (20-11); 23. Mississippi (24-13); 24. Clemson (23-14); 25. California (22-11); 26. Western Kentucky (27-12); 27. Connecticut (27-7); 28. Virginia Tech (25-13); 29. North Carolina (22-16); 30. Stanford (18-13).